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THOUGHTS 






ON THE DUTY 01 






EPISCOPAL nii: Urn. 



IN RKI.ir: 



SLAVERY 



B*1N', \ be. ;. II Ul 



It bruary 19, 1839. 






W\ IDJI.N IA\ 



K 
i"*f '.Printers, 9 Spruce-street 

39. 



1 



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THOUGHTS 



ON THE DCTY OF THE 



EPISCOPAL CIIURril 






SLAVERY: 

IN thi w. T. i 
man 12, 1839. 

BY JOHN JAY. 



Piert 4 R Z, Print, 



■ -'-IS 



THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



At a sitting of the Convention Feb. 12th, 1839, "The Duty 
of the Church in relation to Slavery" being under discus- 
sion, Mr. J. Jay said, 

I rise, sir, to make a few remarks with regard to 
that church, to which I thank God, I belong, in con- 
nection with this important subject — a church 
which has neither been named nor alluded to in tho 
report upon this question, nor by any of the subse- 
quent speakers — although I understand it is repre- 
sented in this Convention by members of Trinity, 
St. Bartholomews', the City Mission, and the Church 
of the Ascension, and I had hoped that the duty of 
explaining the peculiar obligations which rest upon 
her, to aid us in this holy cause, would have been 
assumed by some gentleman, better fitted than my- 
self to do it justice. 

The established Church of England, of which 
ours is a branch, transplanted to this country at an 
parly period of our colonial history, we regard with 



4 THOUGHTS, &C. 

reverence, as our true mother, who has for centu- 
ries commended herself to the love and veneration 
of all who have met around the altar of her com- 
munion, or have listened to her heavenly teachings, 
or mingled their voices in the responses of her no- 
ble liturgy. 

By our separation from Great Britain in the war 
of Revolution, the political tie that connected 
the church in America with the establishment of 
England, was necessarily broken, and she became 
in a political point of view, like the land which she 
blessed with her presence, free and independent ; 
but spiritually the connection remained unbroken ; 
and her bishops in making such alterations in the 
liturgy, as were rendered proper by the change in 
our form of government, solemnly avowed their 
intention to adhere to the "doctrine, discipline 
and worship" of the English church. We were 
to continue one in heart and soul ; and enjoying 
the same purity of faith, and the same forms 
of worship, we claimed the privilege of glory- 
ing with our transatlantic brethren, in the con- 
stancy of her martyrs, and the piety of her di- 
vines. 

Now I would ask if we have retained the spirit 
and the practice of the members of that church ; 



ON THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. O 

or rather if we have not virtually renounced their 
rit, and departed from their practice, in a mutter 
leeply concerns the interests or' the church, 
the extension of Christianity, and the welfare of 
our country ? [land, the question 

tated, not of slav< ting within the 

borders of their * a-girt isle, but of slavery in a 
nit colony — what conduct of the es- 

tablished churc I • dis- 

played I Let h- r dirin ' tence of 

r holy office to the cause of Abolition, answer 
the i. Ji' t her bishops in the House of 

Lords, and her laymen in the I! 8 of Commons, 
laun :iie thunder linst 

I the church magazines 
nns to thi frit nds of freedom, 
ling the religion which they professed, and the 
Bible which the) the God whom 

th' y adored, from the foul 

slavi —that the Scriptures sanction slavery, 

and displaying in \\ ■ of mercy and truth, 

the piety of Christians and almost the zeal of en- 
— let them answer the question. And let 
the English Anti-Slavery Societies in which church- 
man ami er met upon one platform and utter- 
ed one voice, confirm the answer. 



O THOUGHTS, &C. 

But enough — ihe Churchmen of England, al- 
though not as a body as zealous in this cause, as 
their brethren the dissenters, exerted an influence 
of which the clergy in this country, have never an 
idea. Thanks to the great body of Christians, who 
dwell in that glorious land, and to the God who in- 
spired their hearts with sympathy for the slave — 
the batth there has been fought and the victory 
has been won ; and the whole nation are now 
proving the truth of the promise that in keeping of 
God's commandments, there is great reward. 

A similar contest has begun in our own country 
— one of far greater magnitude, of infinitely more 
inportance. It is waged against a system yet more 
atrocious, and polluting not a small and distant 
colony, but half the territory of our own land. 
And what has been the conduct of the church 
here ? Alas ! for the expectation that she would 
conform to the spirit of her ancient mother, she has 
not merely remained a mute and careless spectator 
of this great conflict of truth and justice with hypo- 
crisy and cruelty, but her very priests and deacons 
may be seen ministering at the altar of slavery, 
offering their talents and influence at its unholy 
shrine, and openly repeating the awful blasphemy 



ON THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 1 

that the precepts of our Saviour sanction the - 
tem of American servitude. 

Her northern clergy with rare exceptions, what- 

.ay feci upon this subject, rebuke it 

neither in public nor in private — and I iodi- 

if Abolil 
at times oppose our 

slav . ith Christianity, and 

occ .1 

m. 
In |. sorrowful cry of the down-trod- 

ithy, though 
born bile with us the 

appeal is i. 

lips of our (! I countrymen in I , itol 

our republic. 1 of our 

calls of justice and righteous- 
ful than the fear of .A 

which, as a churchman I blush to remeral 

this apathy. i >n the days set 
apart for Thanksgiving in this state, in different 
yeara, leveral 1 ! recount- 

ing in their .sermons our national blewmga, pro- 
DUmerateour national sins. They spoke 
of our law! . our disregard of the Sabbath — 

our wicked treatment of the poor Indians — the de- 



8 THOUGHTS, &C. 

graded character of our newspaper press, and vari- 
ous others, and they named not, they alluded not 
to Slavery — the vilest, darkest system of iniquity 
that ever exposed a nation to the just vengeance of 
an offended God. Though Sunday after Sunday, 
they had put up that beautiful petition, in the Holy 
Liturgy, "for all who are destitute and oppressed" 
— and their people had ever responded "we beseech 
thee to hear us, good Lord" — those, who of all the 
inhabitants of this wide land, are the most truly 
described in that petition, were unrcmembered 
then. A stranger would scarcely have imagined, 
when those clergymen dwelt upon the favors God 
had heaped upon this people, when they spoke of 
our schools, and colleges, and churches, the exten- 
sion of knowledge, the diffusion of Christianity, and 
all the numberless blessings we enjoy — that there 
existed in this nation nearly three millions of 
people, oppressed in body and degraded in mind — 
who have never entered the walls of a school, nor 
learnt the coming of Christ, and know not the sound 
of the church-going bell, and whom in some states 
it is death to teach that Bible which is our hope and 
stay. 

I would not be understood, sir, for a moment as 
resting the duty of the church in this matter, upon 



ON THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 9 

what has been the practice of the establishment of 
England. Though every member ofthat church from 
the highest grade to the lowest, singly and collec- 
tively, in public and in private, had upheld sla\ 
with all :'':i, it would still be the duty of 

American Episcopalians to lend their aid to aboli- 
tion. Our priii' , 1 nut upon hui 

.- from hui 
. .. . . 

tent Of ity, 

in r 

tri\ . 

they • ! 'ing 

.1 upon I 

• 

to rise in 

B 

. i 

,i of holy men, 



10 THOUGHTS, &C. 

ed by the sweet memory of the martyrs who have 
sealed their testimony with their blood, by their 
veneration for the church, as "the great safe-guard 
of unadulterated Christianity — the defender by her 
articles of what is sound in doctrine, and bv her 
constitution of what is apostolic in government, 
the represser by the simple majesty of her ritual, of 
all extravagance — the encourager by its fervor, of 
ardent piety"*-^by these and all the otherties which 
bind them to her courts, would I appeal to Episco- 
palians to save her from reproach ; and especially 
to her clergy to use their influence to this end, with 
the people committed to their charge, whether it be 
done in the free converse of social intercourse, 
or in the form of pastoral letters, or whether the 
words of truth be preached directly from the pul- 
pit. While the best modes and opportunities are to 
be considered, the duty is imperative and admits not 
of delay. 

Mighty efforts are now making in the southern 
states, to extend the curse of slavery over new 
territories, and to perpetuate the infernal system to 
the end of time. If these ends are accomplished, 
we may well fear that the sun of our country's 

* Melville. 



ON THE EPISCOPAL CHTRCH. 11 

greatness will soon set forever, for we learn from 
Holy Writ that God's blessing only resteth upon 
the people that keep his laws. 

I feel, sir, that no words of mine can express 
the deep, the solemn obligation resting upon li The 
Church' 1 in America, to protest loudly against slave- 
ry. Although some of trie measures adopted by 
the various denominations of Christians represented 
in this Convention, may not be suitable for our 
church, I trust that her slumber on this all-impor- 
tant subject will soon be broken, and that while her 
missionaries are spreading heavenly light through 
foreign c in will awake in Jjer strength to a 

remembranee of the degraded heathen in her own 
land, and will exert all her influence in this behalf, 
until they arc not only blessed with personal free- 
dom, hut enjoy also that "better liberty" wherewith 
the Gospel can make them I 



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